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Floyd Mayweather Career Earnings To Hit $350 Million With Canelo Fight

Floyd Mayweather puts his legacy and undefeated record on the line Saturday night when he steps into the ring against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Mayweather will receive a record guarantee of $41.5 million (Canelo is due $5 million) and is in line for a total payout millions more after all of the pay-per-view receipts are counted and “Money” Mayweather takes his cut. In a 17-year career full of monster paydays, it will be the biggest one yet, topping the $45 million, including his share of PPV revenue, for fighting Miguel Cotto in 2012. Mayweather’s cumulative career earnings will likely hit $350 million with the Canelo fight.

The huge payday is a relatively new thing in the career of Mayweather. He turned pro in 1996 after winning a bronze medal at Atlanta Summer Olympics and piled up 17 victories before getting a title shot in 1998 against Genaro Hernandez. Mayweather received $150,000 for the fight, which he won by technical knockout when Hernandez did not answer the bell for the ninth round. Mayweather’s purse guarantees did not hit seven figures for another seven fights when he defeated Diego Corrales in 2001.

Mayweather’s earnings stayed in the $2-3 million range per bout over his next nine fights. Towards the end of that stretch, he had his first PPV fight against Arturo Gatti in 2005. His earnings jumped in 2006 when he fought Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir in a pair of fights that drew a combined PPV audience of 700,000 and netted Mayweather roughly $13 million for the year and ran his record to 37-0. The year also marked Mayweather’s split from Top Rank and its chief Bob Arum. Mayweather’s earnings were limited as a fighter in the Top Rank stable and he would eventually start his own promotion company, Mayweather Promotions, to control the revenue streams of his fights. The transformation from “Pretty Boy” to “Money” had begun.

Mayweather’s earnings soared starting in 2007 with his first eight-figure payday. His showdown with Oscar De La HoyaHoya set the record for PPV buys with 2.44 million, which resulted in $132 million in PPV revenue. It is a mark that is potentially under assault Saturday night. Richard Schaefer, head of Golden Boy, which is co-promoting Saturday’s bout thinks the fight is on target to top the PPV revenue record thanks to the increased cost with the high-def telecast. Schaefer sees an outside shot at the PPV buy mark and says, “I have 2.6 million [PPV buys] in my mind. Records are meant to be broken.”

The 2007 mega-fight earned De La Hoya $52 million, and Mayweather eventually netted about $25 million after all of the PPV receipts were counted. It started a run of eight straight fights where Mayweather earned at least $25 million. The vanquished include: Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez (both $25 million for Mayweather); Shane Mosley and Victor Ortiz ($40 million each); Cotto ($45 million) and Guerrero ($34 million). Alvarez is the latest to try and take down Mayweather.

Mayweather’s take from the Canelo fight will ultimately be based on the final PPV count. Mayweather Promotions chief Leonard Ellerbe thinks Mayweather could rake in as much as $100 million from the fight, which would likely require at least three million buys. It’s an optimistic tally, but if Mayweather nets $70 million from the fight, it will push his career earnings to $350 million.

Mayweather is far from done making money with this fight. He has four fights remaining after Canelo on the six-fight deal he signed with Showtime in February. Mayweather is likely looking at more than $150 million from those bouts which would make him the half-a-billion dollar man.

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With that amout $350 million, Floyd controls everything, he is his own promoter. I watched the Mayweather vs. Cotto fight the other day and the commentary was disgusting. It was so obviously biased towards Floyd. These guys had no shame. Cotto would punch Floyd straight in the face and the commentators would say “See, Cotto’s trying to hit Floyd but he just can’t do it.” “Floyd is just too fast.” They would try to tell you that you didn’t just see Floyd get hit with your own eyes.

It was unbelievable. And when Cotto would hit Floyd and the crowd would cheer, and the commentators would say “The crowd is just cheering because they don’t realize how far ahead Floyd is on the scorecards.” At one point Cotto hit Floyd and the crowd started cheering and the commentator said, “The crowd cheers to try to encourage Cotto, but they are really just encouraging Floyd to be the bad boy. Which he really isn’t, by the way. He isn’t as bad as he’s made out to be. He’s a good guy.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What objective commentator says stuff like that? It was gross. It makes me think Floyds fights are fixed. All he has to do is not get knocked out, and he’ll never lose a decision. And he has the commentators convincing the PPV viewers that Floyd is winning, and “dominating” and that the crowd who can’t hear the commentators and are cheering for Floyd’s opponent don’t know what they are seeing.

I think maybe that’s why all Floyd does is run, because he knows he just has to avoid getting knocked out or completely destroyed and he will win a decision. He just has to run for 12 rounds and land a few shots and the judges and commentators will take care of the rest. I hope Canelo knocks him out tonight, it’s the only chance he has. Mark my words, Floyd Mayweather will NEVER lose a decision.

Like your comment. I watched the Canelo vs Floyd fight in NZ. The commentators sounded like a bunch of men sucking up to Floyd BIG TIME!!!!. They sounded stupid! They should of just said Canelo is a crap fighter, they were saying everything else bad about him. What a joke! I suppose when your being paid by the promoter which is Floyd, you can’t say nothing bad about him. They totally talked up Floyd, “The greatest event in the world”??? REALLY!!!! How much are you getting paid? WOW???

I couldn’t believe it! Floyd is a clever and is a different boxer where you would preserve your energy till the last round, try not to get hit too much, run around the ring and my favourite ‘Put your left shoulder up’ for the entire time. You win boxing matches like that and get paid MILLIONS! good on you bro!

I thought the fight was ‘half a fight’, nothing fantastic or hyped up to be like all the pre fight promotions suggested.

I suppose the commentators ruined the fight with all their comments, so UNPROFESSIONAL, at least get people who can talk about the type of hits being thrown, some technical terms around boxing not all the crap that was coming out of their mouths. I’m sure Floyd doesn’t need more people sucking up to him.

Also I wasn’t impressed with Floyds little scene in the boxing ring “Your better then that Bro!” no need to make yourself look like a fool, just fight! Your already the ‘MAN’.

Canelo had a good fight, Floyd needed to fight but overall “get better commentators”.

Actually Floyd stood toe to toe with Canelo most of the fight and the bigger stronger Canelo couldn’t hit him that much and when Canelo tried to hit him Floyd would counter punch and tag him. Look at Mayweather’s face then look at Canelo’s face and that will tell you lopsided the fight was.

Listen, I’m really trying to wrap my mind around your comment, on one hand you sound like a serious boxing fan, on another a serious hater !!!! Which ever the case may be I still understand you’re entitled to your opinion.

As for Mr. Mayweather, he’s simply the GREATEST fighter of all TIME !!!!! In the words of the famous “Scrooge McDuck” off the cartoon “DUCK TALES”, You have to work “SMARTER ME LAD, NOT HARDER”.

As an American, i fell very proud to have a hard working citizen in these United States of America who’s a MASTER at his craft and has found a means of maximizing his profitability. Now, If you want to arguer about his boxing style, Well, I will have to deduct I.Q points from the first statement i made about you being a serious boxing Fan !!!

One other piece of advice, if you looking for a sport were the competition is no holds barred and more TOE to TOE, take a look at those ” M M A ” matches, I’m pretty sure you can satisfy that craving you’re having for some real knock down, drag outs……

Other wise SHUT UP !!! and enjoy GREATNESS while we have it. You Remember that other GREAT ATHLETE, who never loss in a NBA FINALS, I believe they call him “ M J”. Please don’t get me on a tyrant when it comes to this guy, all he did was WIN every single time he touch the BIG STAGE, and they have Jerry West photo as the NBA LOGO!!! NO Disrespect, and I am a true PURPLE AND GOLD LAKER FAN !!!!! But i don’t feel he should be the logo.

In closing overall it seems you’re disappointed about his WIN, Floyd knows that its a bang wagon of you Weird O’s, just laying and waiting for his downfall, so I’m guessing you will have to pay to see that TOO !!!!!

Stephen you are clearly delusional. I was at the Cotto fight. What you’ve called landed shots by Cotto were actually punches that were “rolled” by Floyd. Know what that means? It means that Floyd moved in sync with Cotto’s punches to minimize the impact. We call that defense. As for objectivity, well I think I’ll take the word of Showtime announcer and former prize fighter Paulie M. Here’s a guy that can appreciate what Floyd was doing in the ring. I guess you’d prefer someone like Larry Merchant who never fought a guy a day in his life. Get over your hatred of Mayweather and recognize greatness when you see it. And by the way, not even Cotto is arguing he won the fight. Neither is Canelo. Go figure.

Commentators don’t score/judge fights. Judges do… I watched that Cotto fight also. And, this was probably one of Mayweathers toughest fights. But when you look at the whole fight from a fans that liked both boxers and look at the punch stats at the end of the fight and look at Cotto’s face after the fight, you can see who won… Fixed? Now you’re not making sense. Mayweather has always been the one that had to prove himself… Remember just a few years ago as a champion he was still only making a few $100,000′s a fight? He had to prove himself time and time again and now he is reaping the rewards by demanding big money. Win, lose or draw, he gets guaranteed money BEFORE the fight even starts… Why does he have to fix a fight? He is getting paid all this money for this fight guaranteed, whether he wins, loses or draws…

The hate is hilarious. You need to quit. Mayweather beat Canelo fair and square. All the fight fixing rumors can stop. Floyd is a great defensive boxer and once again showed his skills in the ring. You want to whine? Take all that whining to Bob Arum after he set up pacquiao for failure in the bradley/pacquiao fight. Now that’s a good reason to be pissed at the sport of boxing. Mayweather is doing his job.